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Positioning paper
supporting
vulnerable citizens
with inter-agency collaboration
Welsh authorities and emergency services share data as Atos
innovation helps identify local people who need sensitive handling
Five public service organisations in South
Wales are working closely with Atos to
track vulnerable citizens who slip between
their separate databases. In a ground
breaking collaboration, local councils, health
boards, and Gwent Police are sharing local
information, while Atos deploys innovative
data matching, predictive analytics, and
consultative dialogue to help deliver better
identification of individuals and groups most
at risk in the area.
Blaenau Gwent CBC, Torfaen CBC, Caerphilly
CBC, Gwent Police, and Aneurin Bevan Health
Board all currently gather valuable information
about the people they serve, but in isolation
from each other. There is no collective
intelligence to inform their decisions, or even
agreement on vulnerability characteristics.
So people at risk are not always prioritised
or treated sensitively, sometimes with
tragic consequences.
Your business technologists. Powering progress
The vulnerability intelligence project aims to
enhance the quality of response, and enable
more meaningful strategic needs assessments,
based on comprehensive, consistent and
accurate information. The project could
change radically the way the public sector
works together to provide its services in future,
improve significantly the lives of citizens, and
deliver cost savings by removing the costs of
managing separate information sources.
Economic landscape
drives social change
Atos is a familiar public sector technology partner in Wales, leading the
‘Merlin’ consortium which has supplied comprehensive ICT services to
government bodies for the last 17 years​.
South Wales has been badly affected in recent
years by the decline of traditional industries
such as coal mining and steel working. In many
parts of the region, unemployment, deprivation,
and financial hardship levels are consistently
higher than the UK average. Inevitably, poverty,
abuse, mental health and other problems follow
in the wake of social conditions such as these,
leaving many citizens vulnerable.
For many local people, failure by local service
organisations to recognise their inability to
pay financial penalties, or read and properly
understand forms, can be very distressing
and contribute to a spiral of despair. The
consequences of mismanagement can
even be tragic if, for example, some forms
of vulnerability are not prioritised during
emergency situations such as flooding.
Better knowledge about individual people’s
vulnerability is therefore imperative in
delivering services. It can also help authorities
to introduce effective preventative strategies.
“Improved intelligence can help us to be
more proactive in the way we deliver
services to individuals,” says Dean Thomas,
Service Manager, Strategic Transformation
Team & Resilience at Blaenau Gwent. “By
intervening sooner we can potentially
decrease the likelihood of someone
becoming vulnerable. So collaborating
to get better intelligence is in the public’s
best interests, in terms of quality of life
and cost effectiveness.”
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With encouragement from the Welsh
Government, local authorities and emergency
services have put effort and resources into
collaboration and securing better intelligence
about vulnerability in recent years. A Single
Integrated Plan was developed in 2011 to
streamline the ways that organisations work
with each other. An advanced Direct Electronic
Incident Transfer programme encouraged
a better exchange of critical information,
particularly between emergency services.
The momentum for change was accelerated
in 2013, however, when Blaenau Gwent,
Caerphilly and Torfaen councils were awarded
a grant by the European Social Fund “to create
a ‘vulnerable information sharing hub’ that
draws together data and information about
vulnerable people and groups, which currently
already exists in isolation across public service
organisations.”
With Aneurin Bevan Health Board and
Gwent Police joining the collaboration, the
quest was on for a technology partner
that could understand the public sector’s
distinctive operating environment, advise on
characteristics for identifying vulnerability,
compare and analyse the data that each
organisation was currently collecting, and
design a solution to meet all the partners’
requirements for integrated data collection
in future.
Right place, right capabilities
Atos is a familiar technology partner for the
public sector in Wales. It leads the ‘Merlin’
consortium, which for 17 years has supplied
comprehensive ICT services to government
bodies, focusing on major strategic
programmes of work. With an extensive range
of public sector clients all over the UK, Atos
supports the UK Government’s ambitions
to provide more opportunities for small and
medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
Atos has set up a SME Harbour programme
to enable simple, safe and transparent
partnering with SMEs in Wales as well as
elsewhere in Britain.
Atos is able to demonstrate a unique
combination of capabilities that meet and
exceed the project’s requirements. It offers
business technology consulting, where highly
experienced specialists understand the rapidly
changing technology world, but root their
innovative recommendations in the language
of organisational management.
A dedicated Analytics and Information
Management multi-disciplinary team of 28
specialists is also fast developing a leadership
role for Atos, with recent experience in
pioneering public sector projects at NHS and
Sport England, where close engagement
with stakeholders results in actionable
outputs and recommendations.
Atos has an unrivalled track record in designing
solution architectures for every kind of
technology challenge. At one end of the scale,
as Worldwide IT Partner of the Olympic &
Paralympic Games for 20 years, Atos develops
solution architectures for the biggest sporting
event in the world. But its methodologies
are also tried and tested in much smaller
operations, where the highest standards of
data security apply.
Supporting vulnerable citizens with inter-agency collaboration
Solution for today
and tomorrow
With Blaenau Gwent taking a lead role, the five collaborating
organisations are working with Atos to define a six month pilot project
from April 2014 to tackle the barriers to information sharing, and
potentially prepare the ground for a longer term solution.
„„Deploying rich analytic and information
techniques to derive insight and intelligence
from the data sets, ‘translate’ the data into
meaningful information, and assess it against
the project’s objectives
„„Developing training to support
recommended changes in collection
„„Managing a local SME as part of Atos’
Harbour programme.
Atos has developed a high level solution
architecture for both the pilot project, and for
a potential permanent solution (based on a
secure external user portal).
Hosted @ Torfaen SRS Data Center
1. Blaenau Gwent social care
system extract
2. Torfaen social care system
extract
3. Caerphilly social care
system extract
4. Aneurin Bevan systems /
data warehouse extract*
5. Gwent police systems /
data sharing project extract*
Raw
vulnerability
data
VIS Data
Matching Engine
Matches records of
Individual across all
source systems
Raw
VIS Data
Repository
Raw
vulnerability
data
= To be provided by BG & Partners
At the end of the pilot project in September
2014, following three matching and analytics
deep-dive ‘sprints’ with stakeholders and users
to define and run queries and review results, an
independent evaluation will assess the project.
It is likely to recommend a long-term solution
for inter-agency collaboration and data sharing.
Supporting vulnerable citizens with inter-agency collaboration
Matched
“We don’t have a baseline for success
with this project,” says Jonathan
Pinkney, Regional Project Coordinator
at Blaenau Gwent CBC.
Holds Single View of
Individual, all the
associated raw and
enriched data points
VIS Data
Analytics
Engine (+GIS)
Derives
Vulnerability
Profiles
Generates
strategic insight
to improve
planning
decisions and
potential
individual-level
interventions
Analytical Reports & Dashboards
„„Comparing and matching data collected
so far
In scope for VIS Pilot Project
Secure Data Transfer
„„Advising on business objectives, ways to
identify forms of vulnerability appropriate
to all five organisations, information sharing
protocols and governance arrangements,
and methods of data collection
Vulnerability Intelligence Service
High-level Solution Overview
Source systems
Atos is providing a multi-disciplinary approach:
= Core Solution: Matching + Analytics
If Jonathan Pinkney’s success criteria are
achieved, the pilot project could create
an important template for inter-agency
collaboration and vulnerability identification,
for replication all over the UK in future.
“But if at the end of the pilot we have
good quality, accurate and consistent
information that we can take to a social
worker, and say: how can you use this
data to perform your duties better – to
stop someone being abused, or help
someone more quickly? That will be
fantastic success.”
3
About Atos
Atos SE (Societas Europaea) is an international
information technology services company with
2013 annual revenue of €8.6 billion and 76,300
employees in 52 countries. Serving a global
client base, it delivers IT services in 3 domains,
Consulting & Technology Services, Systems
Integration and Managed Services & BPO, and
transactional services through Worldline. With
its deep technology expertise and industry
knowledge, it works with clients across the
following market sectors: Manufacturing, Retail &
Services; Public sector, Healthcare & Transports;
Financial Services; Telco, Media & Utilities.
Atos is focused on business technology that
powers progress and helps organizations to
create their firm of the future. It is the Worldwide
Information Technology Partner for the Olympic
& Paralympic Games and is quoted on the NYSE
Euronext Paris market. Atos operates under
the brands Atos, Atos Consulting & Technology
Services, Worldline and Atos Worldgrid.
For more information, visit: atos.net
For more information, contact: [email protected]
atos.net
Atos, the Atos logo, Atos Consulting, Atos Sphere, Atos Cloud and Atos Worldgrid, Worldline, blueKiwi are registered trademarks of Atos Group.
June 2014 © 2014 Atos.